Welfare Reform Bill (Conditionality and Sanctions Contingency Fund Advance)

Thursday 1st December 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling)]

The Department of Work and Pensions has obtained approval for an advance from the contingencies fund of £800,000 to allow for the development of IT. This amount is part of the proposed investment in conditionality and sanctions changes of £3 million agreed at the time of the spending review.

In October 2012, the conditionality and sanctions project will introduce a claimant commitment, designed to give greater clarity to claimants about the consequences of failing to comply with their job seeking or work preparation requirements. This will be underpinned by a more robust sanctions regime with tougher sanctions for repeated non-compliance, and a revised hardship regime. These changes will align current key benefits with the proposed policy for universal credit, which will simplify the migration of existing claims on to universal credit from 2013.

The advance from the Contingencies Fund will allow essential work to commence on detailed process design and IT changes, to enable the implementation of the new conditionality and sanctions regime in advance of universal credit.

Parliamentary approval for additional resource and capital of £3 million for this new service will be sought in the supplementary estimate for the Department for Work and Pensions. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £800,000 will be met by a repayable cash advance from the Contingencies Fund.